Review Sections

If performance is your only concern, you've got nothing to worry about with the Samsung SyncMaster S27B970. It sports a superhigh XHD resolution, a high contrast ratio, and deep, accurate colors.

Aside from one glaring but negligible design gaffe, price is the only real problem here. At $1,200, the S27B970 prices itself out of the reach of most, but people willing to pay for it will not be disappointed.

Design and features
With its minimalist design, the 27-inch S27B970 takes some very apparent design cues from the Apple Thunderbolt Display. The S27B970 sports a clean aesthetic, with smooth rounded corners, a glossy screen, and a combination of metal and plastic finish (cleverly altered to resemble metal).

The panel is fairly thin, extending back about 0.8 inch in depth. The screen and bezel sport highly reflective and glossy surfaces, with the left and right side bezel measuring 0.9 inch in width. The screen is 25.4 inches wide with a plastic silver trim that runs entirely around the edge of the panel. The back of the panel is devoid of any connections but has an embossed silver Samsung logo on the left side. The surface is matte black plastic, finished to somewhat resemble black wood.

View full gallery (12 Photos)

The S27B970's profile isn't the thinnest I've seen, but it sure is shiny.
James Martin/CNET

The panel attaches to a metallic chrome neck that stretches 16.8 inches from the foot stand to its peak. The top of the neck is flattened off, ledgelike, with a plastic silver top. The neck attaches to the panel via a hinge that allows for 10-degree tilt and 4 inches of screen height adjustment, a feature the Thunderbolt Display failed to include. At its lowest height, the panel sits 2.4 inches from the desktop, and 6.4 inches at its highest.

Much to my disappointment, there's no built-in swivel mechanism and no pivot feature. The Thunderbolt Display skipped out on swivel as well, but its smooth metallic finish allowed it to easily slide around on smooth surfaces. Thanks to the rubber attachments on the bottom of the S27B970's foot stand, it won't be doing much sliding.

View full gallery (12 Photos)

Klaatu barada nikto.
James Martin/CNET

Speaking of the foot stand, the flying-saucerlike silver plastic stand resembles something out of a '50s sci-fi movie, lending a kind of art deco vibe to the monitor's aesthetic. However, the top of the foot stand can be peeled off with a bit of effort, although you can't actually remove it. It's not a huge beef, but with a $1,200 monitor, you expect a bit higher of a quality standard. The stand itself is a wide 9.7 inches in diameter, which keeps the monitor well-grounded with the panel at its lowest height, but unfortunately it wobbles like a Weeble when at its highest.

There is one key design issue that really annoyed me. And by "annoyed me," I mean drove me stark-raving batty. The DisplayPort input is embedded too deeply in the foot stand. This isn't a problem when plugging it in, but DisplayPort requires that you press a button on the cable in order to unplug it. The problem is that the space between that button and the underside of the saucer section is a lot smaller than most human fingers, making it nearly impossible to disconnect DisplayPort without using a tool like a screwdriver (I used an old CD). In fact, one of our DisplayPort cables didn't survive the ordeal. This kind of design faux pas is really inexcusable, especially from a design veteran like Samsung.

View full gallery (12 Photos)

This. This is why we can't have nice things.
James Martin/CNET

Getting back to connections, in addition to DisplayPort, the S27B970 houses HDMI, DVI, and a USB upstream port on the back of the foot stand, with none of these ports presenting the same problem that the DisplayPort did. On the right side sit two USB downstream ports, and on the bottom edge of the panel are two speakers.

The OSD array sits on the bottom of the neck, with each button and touch sensor emitting a bluish-white LED light. The array consists of an Enter button, a Menu button, and up and down navigation buttons that double as volume and preset shortcut buttons, respectively. The power button sits below these, in the middle. While the buttons are responsive, they're also small, requiring you to be more precise with your button presses than on most monitors.

View full gallery (12 Photos)

Though cool-looking, the S27B970's OSD array buttons are a bit too small.
James Martin/CNET

The OSD itself has most of the options I expect from a Samsung OSD, like five different presets: Standard, High Bright, Cinema, sRGB, and Calibration. Brightness, Contrast, and Sharpness controls, as well as Red, Green, and Blue adjustment options, are also included. There are controls for response time adjustment, gamma, and an impressive 13 different color temperature settings. However, Eco savings options aren't as cool or thoughtful as on recent Samsung monitors, as you can only change the brightness to 50 and 75 percent.

Design and feature highlights

Connectivity

HDMI, DisplayPort, DVI

Ergonomic options

10-degree back tilt, panel height adjustment

Resolution

2,560x1,440 pixels

Aspect ratio

16:9

Audio

Built-in speakers

VESA wall-mount support

No

Included video cables

HDMI, DisplayPort

Backlight

W-LED

Panel type

PLS

Screen film

Glossy

Number of presets

5

Overdrive

Yes

Picture options

Brightness, Contrast, Sharpness

Color controls

Color temperature: 4,000K-10,000K

Gamma control

Yes

Additional features

USB downstream x 2, USB upstream x 1

Performance
I tested the Samsung Syncmaster S27B970 through its DisplayPort port input, connected to a Windows Vista PC, using the included DisplayPort cable. The display posted a composite score of 98 in CNET Labs' DisplayMate-based performance tests.

DisplayMate: The S27B970 displayed light gray up to level 254, the highest possible (pure white is 255). At the lower end of the grayscale, the monitor succeeded in showing dark gray down to a level of only 3 (black is 0). Which indicates low, but not extremely low, black levels.

In Color Tracking I noticed a slight red hue in the grayscale when using the Standard preset; however, adjusting the red down to 39 alleviated this problem.

When viewing DisplayMate's Dark Screen test, which consists of a plain black screen, there was obvious backlight bleedthrough in the middle of the left and right edges of the screen.

Movies: I tested the S27B970 using the Blu-ray version of "Avatar." The Cinema preset presented the movie with slightly too much blue, but dark detail like braided hair in one of the nighttime scenes could easily be seen.

Eric Franklin leads the CNET Reviews editors in San Francisco as managing editor. A 20-year industry veteran, Eric began his tech journey testing computers in the CNET Labs. When not at work he can usually be found at the gym, at the movies, or at the edge of his couch with a game controller in his hands.
See full bio